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A critically injured teacher who had her hand “almost completely severed” when gunfire rocked Silver Rail Elementary School in Oregon last week said she pretended “to be dead” to avoid being executed by the killer – in her first public comments since the deadly shooting.
After realizing “something happened outside” the Bend school on Oct. 15, teacher Becky Drury said she spotted the gunman, identified as former Silver Rail student Griffin John, 16, and raced back into her classroom to lock the door — but the shooter “was already there.”
“Before I could do anything more, he shot me at close range and I fell to the ground,” Drury, 54, recalled of the terrifying moments in a statement obtained by KPTV.
“Lying on the floor, I saw that my left hand was almost completely severed from the gunshot, and my other arm was also severely injured. I could not get up, defend myself, or protect anyone else,” she said.
“So, I did the only thing I could do, which was to pretend to be dead in the hope he would not shoot me again.”
Three students — Rhoam Summer, 5, and two other unidentified students, ages 8 and 11 — were tragically killed in the gunfire as well as beloved volleyball coach, 25-year-old Megan Lambert.
Saylor Graham, a wheelchair-bound 7-year-old, was also blasted in the gunfire and was rushed to a nearby hospital.
Here’s the latest on the elementary school shooting in Oregon:
- Griffin John’s connections to ‘nihilist violent extremist’ groups investigated after Oregon school shooting: report
- Heartbroken parents of youngest Oregon school shooting victim reveal 5-year-old’s Halloween plans before he was killed
- Secrets of Oregon school shooter’s broken family — and violence that began before he was even born
- Hero who stopped Oregon school shooter called mother to say ‘I shot and killed him, mom’
The shooter was fatally shot by a heroic bystander who raced into the Bend school after he heard bullets flying.
Drury, who was taken to St. Charles Medical Center, acknowledged there’s “been contradictory reporting” about her actions that day, “but the truth is, I was shot before I had any chance to act.”
“What happened in that classroom was unimaginable,” the teacher added, “and like so many in this community, my heart is broken for everyone affected by this tragedy.”